The invention resides in the field of treating vegetables in their original condition as harvested, for sale to retailers and consumers. It has to do especially with lettuce heads and similar items. Heretofore this coring step was done manually, i.e. by holding the head in one hand, and cutting out the core with a knife in the other hand.
Such coring operation as heretofore performed was very time consuming, and it resulted in an immense waste of the body of the lettuce head.
A main object of the invention is to provide apparatus for overcoming the above difficulties.
A more specific object is to provide such apparatus having the following features and advantages;
1) the actual cutting out of the core from the lettuce head is done by mechanical apparatus;
2) the coring step is performed very rapidly;
3) the piece that is cut from the head, that constitutes the hard core, is the only part of the head that is cut out, leaving almost no part of the leaves attached to the core, thereby substantially eliminating waste of the leaves which constitute the edible part.
4) The lettuce head is placed in the machine with the core facing downwardly which helps put it in exact positions.